My heart is full.  Thank you for all the congratulations and celebratory hugs!  They mean a lot to me!
Yes, I did cry a little at the end when I gave it, but I was able to say it all...
 
Hi, my name is Brian, and I’m a massage therapist.Cue audience: “hi Brian”It might help you to know that by day I’m also an elementary school music teacher, it may explain a few things.  A few, anyway.Setting: Bancroft School of Massage Therapy, Lecture Room.  October 1, 2008  First class.  We are seven: five women, two men.  We are Lynn, Suzanne, Kristen, Cheryl, Maggie, Brian and Brian.  I notice the "Other Brian" is half my age,  taller, has hair, and about 50 pounds more muscle.  Nonetheless, I am certain no one can tell us apart because we have the same name.  That’s mostly because he spells it correctly.  (Everyone is sick of the joke, but as my elementary students well know, that doesn’t stop me.)While I can’t speak for all of us, I can say for myself that it’s difficult to describe the state of mind of this first Bancroft evening – there’s the newness of the situation, the weird slope of the chairs, another fluorescent lit classroom, and the growing awareness of the implications of last week’s registration flurry… it’s still sinking in:I’ve ordered a massage table.  OMG, I’ve ordered a TABLE.Momentary panic sets in – what have I got myself into?  What are these people going to be like?  Unabashed skeptic that I am, have I just signed up for a starring role in “Beefeater moves to Vegetarian Island?”  The jitters quickly fade.  I am reassured it's a good and thorough program, the school has a fantastic reputation.  I'll be well-prepared to pass certification exams and licensing, they'll teach me how to run an independent business.  I'll learn proper body mechanics so I should be able to sustain a career for as long as I stay healthy.Within the first months Maggie and Cheryl had to drop out to care for sick family members.  Maggie was able to return but joined the next class behind us.  Cheryl planned to return but had yet another family crisis to attend to.  She stays in touch.Setting: Bancroft School of Massage Therapy, Lecture Room.  March 13, 2010, 720 instructional hours and 18 months later.Last class.  We are five, three women and two men.  We are Lynn, Suzanne, Kristen, Brian and Brian.While I can’t speak for all of us, I can say for myself that it’s difficult to describe the state of mind of this morning – there’s the newness of the situation, the weird slope of the chairs, the fluorescent lit classroom, and a growing awareness of the implications of this calendar date – it’s still sinking in:I’m a massage therapist.  OMG, I’m a massage THERAPIST.Momentary panic sets in – but I haven’t achieved petrissage perfection yet!  I can’t remember which part of the bicipital groove pec major attaches to!  What have I got myself into?  Later Sister Pat reassures us that it’s all still there, that we’ll have no trouble reviewing for the National Certification Exam, that everything Will Be Okay.  The jitters quickly fade. It's been a good and thorough program, the school has a fantastic reputation.  I'm well-prepared to pass certification exams and licensing, I’ve learned how to start an independent business.  I’ve learned the foundations of proper body mechanics so I should be able to sustain a career for as long as I stay healthy.How the heck did we get here?Our first real adventures began with Mike and the Anatomy Class. (I know, sounds like an after-school special, but then of course, for me, it WAS.)  Loving word play the way I do, I couldn’t help myself.The following are taken from my anatomy notes, seriously:• There are 639 named muscles in the body. Which begs the questions, "how many un-named ones are there?" and "can I name one?  I'll call it Bob."  But that could get weird, as in “oh man, I’ve got a cramp in my Bob!”• Supercalifragilistic semimembranosusSupercalifragilistic semitendinosusSupercalifragilistic bi-ceps femorisSupercalifragilistic these all the hamstrings -   Da-DA!• Cephalic, Acromial, Patellar, Pedal Digits, Patellar, Pedal Digits;Cephalic, Acromial, Patellar, Pedal Digits, Patellar, Pedal Digits;Ocular, Aural, Oral, NasalCephalic, Acromial, Patellar, Pedal Digits, Patellar, Pedal Digits;• On HBO tonight - Spaghetti Western starring Ilio.  Iliocostalis.  This town isn’t longissimus for the both of us.  You have till sundown to get your spinales outta here.• What do you get when you cross camp cooking fuel, a furry-footed horse, and an extinct elephant?  SternoClydesdaleMastadon.  • Splenius capitis and splenius cervicis.  When you have multiple spleniuses, the correct plural is splenii.  Can you feel the tsunami coming?  Let me use it in a sentence or two…"I got the powder and spray for the scalenes, but I'm going to have to start on drops for the spleeny-eye.""I dunno Doctor, it's the worst case of Spleeny-eye I've seen in years.  We'll have to operate."Elementary classroom usage: "Will you STOP making the spleeny-eye faces and let me take a SERIOUS picture of you for once!?!?"Why does Mike keep getting that funny look on his face?It’s NOT all MY fault.  • How about Kristen’s infamous cup of tea sprayed all over Lynn’s back due to an accidental and dramatically reversed act of deglutition. (She choked and did a spit-take, vocabulary courtesy Mike’s A&P 2).  • Or BZs misreading of the syllabus, causing him to believe and start the rumor we had an additional clay homework assignment due. • The exam Lynn started taking that was a whole unit ahead of the rest of us (he accidentally gave her the wrong one).• Suzanne’s momentary and embarrassing exam confusion about the geographical difference between the gluteal tuberosity and the ischial tuberosity, which are two similar sounding, but differently situated,  bony locations.  Of course it would be on the palpation portion of the test (meaning that it had to be manually located)… and for those of you who haven’t taken Mike’s course, all you need to know is that one of them is on your thigh bone and you’re sitting on the other one.  Fortunately for Suzie, we were more sedate for MT 1 and 2.  Was it the dimmer lighting?  The absence of neural overstimulation from fluorescents?  The spa music in the background?  Suzie’s quiet southern drawl?  Her gentle sense of humor?  The amusing and endearing interactions between Suzie and Rick (her husband) when he came in as a guest client for Suzie to demonstrate a new technique?Or was it more likely because (speaking for myself), I can’t massage and talk at the same time?Suzie gave us our first massage tools.  Thorough and clear, we still hear her voice when we effleurage (three times then move on).The pace picks up – we meet Linda who teaches us the dance of massage (Kristen finds out the hard way that I really CAN’T waltz)Joanne, RMA 1 instructor, a personality so unflaggingly cheerful that her mere presence could make the most ill-tempered rhino smile.  It’s impossible to be grumpy next to her.  I’ve tried.  Can’t be done.  It’s Joanne I have to thank for the massage brick I now use on especially adhesed clients…Wendy, first aid, CPR, moxa workshop… (aside - it was in a carpool en route to Wendy’s home for the moxibustion class that Suzanne and I learned Suzanne already knew my partner George.  I told her that when he found out he’d start singing Small World.  He did.)  Wendy somehow managed to take the concepts of an entire school of massage thought and 5,000 years of tradition and condense it into an entirely too brief introductory course of 10 class sessions in Asian Massage Techniques.  Even with the obnoxiousness of one rather loud student – Wendy, thank you for your patience with me!Sister Pat – where would we be without your medical expertise? We’d have severe undiagnosed cases of Contra-indication-itis. Greg – when I stop laughing… business, and chair massage, and the game of props with the face cradle.  I still get the giggles over it.  Nice to know that even with severe ADHD one can still be a successful massage therapist.  You give me hope!Shari – aside from the sheer entertainment value of the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry between you and Kristen (and the toeless sox), you made what has at times felt like an impossible ocean of information a more manageable set of well, stuff you do in a massage.When I asked my classmates what they wanted me to be sure to include in tonight’s words, they unanimously agreed that it was this: the element that makes the Bancroft experience so amazing, transforming, unforgettable, and deeply valuable is that of the Bancroft teachers.This is a group of truly dedicated, persistent, highly skilled massage therapists who genuinely want each of their students to succeed.  I’m a teacher myself with 28 years of experience.  In that time I’ve learned to recognize the hallmarks of great teaching:-    a thorough knowledge of and passion for the subject-    clarity of communication-    the ability to match instruction to the individual student-    willingness to help students work through any obstacle -    giving students time and assistance beyond the required clock hours-    going the extra personal mile in preparation for each class to make the material as accessible and memorable as possibleTank, we hope you truly appreciate the debt of gratitude we feel for the outstanding work done by your staff who preserve and further the legacy of Henry Le Fleur.  They have fully engaged us as learners, and connected with us as human beings.  We are forever changed, and better, for having been here.  How can I describe exactly what that means?Maybe like this:The folding door from our family room opens.  She floats into the kitchen, her expression relaxed into a peaceful smile, framed by fading cradle face and massage hair.  Her shoulders are more even than when she came in, the cessation of pain obvious in the way she is moving.  The Star Wars playlist is still repeating faintly on the iPod.  One of the quirky things we love about this co-worker at my school is her geeky enthusiasm for all things Jedi.She’s our PE teacher and a total fitness fanatic.  Over the last couple of weeks she developed some tightness in her upper back she thought she could simply blast through, but it wasn’t going away.  When she came in earlier she was turning her whole body side to side in order to look around, rather than only her neck.  Tightness in her upper back significant.  We had made the appointment for as soon after school as possible, no time really to review notes.I draw on every single class I’ve taken here at Bancroft, grateful that I have so many strategies to use on this issue.  She gives me good feedback, helping me interpret what my hands detect in the tissue.  Thank goodness, I think, the techniques I’ve been learning really do work.  We haven’t completely resolved the tightness tonight, so she comes back two days later, moving better and less restricted.  I’m learning lessons about what can be accomplished in a session, how deeply to work, how to continue work begun in a prior treatment.Her relief and ability to do her job at school pain free make me feel good.  I’m happy that she feels better.It dawns on me as I ponder what to say to you tonight that the deep satisfaction I feel now, in addition to the improved physical well-being of my co-worker are the perfect illustration of the gift Bancroft has given this past year and a half to me, to us, and to the many people we are going to know.And for that, the five of us thank you from the bottom of our hearts.